Last Minute Reservations.....any experience?

[Callum]

We didn't use our DVC points last year and had planned for a longer stay in October of this year.

These plans however are looking a wee bit shaky as we are now right in the middle of selling our house and business. No firm dates for moving but mid-May is beginning to look favourite.

I would obviously want to wait until we had a definate date for moving before making any reservations. This would leave only a 4 or 5 month window to find a resort. Has anyone tried booking at this short notice? If so, were the options really limited? I would think it very unlikely that we find a studio at AKV (our home resort) but otherwise have no preferences about where we stay.

Just wondering if anyone has had any similar experience.

 

[Disneymad]

As long as you're flexible about resorts you'll be able to get something. I never book far in advance (so much so that I've even travelled with a night missing in the middle of my trip and picked up a cancellation for it the day before, haha!) though you may have issues booking all nights at once. Whatever you do, don't use the waitlist feature as it's rubbish now as it'll only come through if all your nights become available at once which is extremely unlikely if you're after a big wedge of successive nights at (relatively) short notice.

Call up rather than use the online booking request system that way if nights are missing it's a lot easier to talk through things with the CM about your options and to book up all the days that are available. This may mean you have some gaps and get several reservation numbers but that's fine as everything can get linked at the end. It's then a lot easier to call back now and then to check for individual nights becoming available and simply add them on.

Last year I first called around 5 weeks or so before arrival for a 15 night stay for the 1st 2 weeks of November. We did 4 nights OKW, 3 nights BWV and 8 nights SSR. However I'm pretty sure I could have got all that without the resort hopping at either OKW or SSR but we really wanted some nights at BWV due to the F&W festival. It probably took me 8-10 calls to nail it all down over a period of 2-3 weeks (so even then I wasn't exactly trying that hard, think I only twice called more than once a day - once when Member Services opened and then a few hours later to give a chance for US people who don't like to get up early to cancel).

It shouldn't be anywhere near as 'bad' at 4-5 months out.

 

[Hilary]

We've managed to get relatively short-notice reservations (I would guess about 5 or 6 weeks in advance) at OKW or SSR, usually in March/April.

Good luck!

 

[Callum]

Disneymad & Hilary

Thanks for the info. I'm probably being a bit over cautious about the 4/5 month window but I think your experiences show that,even at 4/5 weeks, it can still be achieved. You have put my mind at rest

Flights............now that's another question

 

[UKDEB]

Don't forget that, as far as banked points are concerned, you need to book no later than 4 months before the end of your use year and the stay must be within the use year. So, if you have a December use year, for example, you'd have to book by 31st July and stay before 30th November.

 

[penlanspice]

We booked yesterday for 6 weeks time, they had SSR and OKW available so we booked SSR and wait listed for other resorts but not that bother if they come through or not.
We have booked a few times at a few months out and never had a problem and usually get into places like BWV and VWL.